With an afternoon spent taking no1 daughter to a birthday party, I haven’t managed to get as far as I would have liked on the county.

I have redone the con rods recessing filed down Markits crank pin nuts into the rod (then re testing to ensure it still works).

With this complete I prepared the left hand slide bars, again they are 1mm too short. I have checked and they are also too short for the Saint. I am going to unsolder the bars and either add a spacer so that they are 1mm further away from the cylinder or replace with nickel silver rod

In the mean time I’ve switched attention to the gear box (high level) which will power the centre axle. I think this large Mashima will just Fit once I’ve cut off the second shaft. (It was purchased for a West Country chassis ive yet to build)

With the chassis reassembled it is still free running (likewise when the gearbox is hand turned)

The bogie still needs replacing, I have a perseverance bogie for the Saint which I am planing to build with the comet sides and use with the county (with the cock up bogie going the other way).
I have also test fitted body to chassis, requiring one of the oem body chassis fixings to be chopped out to clear the clyinders.

Running by Christmas? I hope so